Delightful Dickens

By Charlotte

Book Review: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Official FC Rating:

Every Christmas season I tell myself I'm going to read A Christmas Carol. And every Christmas season I fail to read A Christmas Carol. Bah humbug, indeed. 

Until now! I finally committed to reading it. I loved it. I've read some of Oliver Twist (If I remember correctly, I put it down to read Harry Potter instead. I truly have a problem.) so I knew I liked Dickens. His writing is a bit much to get through since we just don't write or speak like that anymore, but I enjoy it. A Christmas Carol didn't disappoint. 

I'll keep this short and sweet, just like the story. First of all, his characters are awesome. In my mind, he and Agatha Christie are similar in the way their main characters stick out. I can perfectly picture Poirot right down to his mannerisms, and it's because of the physical descriptions Christie offers just as much as the personality. The same is true of Dickens. Scrooge is such a vivid character. There's a reason this story has been adapted approximately 42,000 times and it's not just the message it sends. It's Scrooge. 

Also, also. Remember in school, when we were taught that three adjectives is the perfect number? I think Dickens would roll his eyes at that rule. There were several instances where he used a ton of adjectives, and instead of it feeling overdone or clunky, it added a sense of fun to the reading. I almost got a feeling of nonchalant urgency while reading it, if that's possible. It wasn't important to hurry and read a sentence, but you did anyway because of how it was structured; I pictured a really excellent storyteller reading the story aloud, and those sentences chock-full of adjectives turned into crescendos. Does that make sense? At all? It made it a really delightful read. If I try to sum A Christmas Carol up in one word, delightful is absolutely the word. 

Not that I really have to mention this since it's known across the world, but the moral of the story is a beautiful one. I anticipate reading this at least every other year. 

My point: Yes! Go read it! 

And of course, Merry Christmas! 

xoxo

Char